Federal Funds Squandered

As Northeastern Pennsyl-vania got hammered by floods once again over the past month, a few things came to my mind.

All the federal and state grants that went into this area for sidewalks, decorative light poles, flowers, trees, walking trails, biking trails, new ballfields, town parks could have been much better spent on flood protection such as dredging creeks and building dikes and levees.

I believe the federal and state governments’ job is to maintain public safety, not handing out taxpayer money for projects that sometimes wouldn’t even get approval on the local level. Just think about it for a minute. If you live in Scranton, would you want to pay for sidewalks in Tunkhannock? I don’t think so.

Only congressmen and senators can justify this type of spending to bolster their re-election efforts. Now while these poor flood victims look for help, they are told no federal funds are available. They are told the United States is broke, but at the same time, the Federal Reserve is printing money to prop up the European Union’s Economy.